Your Crisis Management Action Plan
What factors do you look for to determine if and when a crisis situation may occur? What would be your first plan of action?
It depends upon the potential crisis. If we are looking at health and environmental disasters/crises, such as H1N1 flu or hurricanes, we have the advantage of monitoring information from the CDC or National Hurricane Center respectively in advance and can make decisions as to how they may effect our specific organization. If for instance a hurricane in our area is imminent my first plan of action would be to put our communication plan into action followed by putting our crisis team in place.
Crisis are often just what the definition for crisis pertains too. Most crisis are unforseen and requires leadership that is cool, calm and collected. I was working for a company that was raided by the Justice Deparment and investigated for 18 months. I was fortunate enough to have a great leader in a crisis. He kept us all believing in ourselves and keeping us positive in a very difficult time. In the end we all were found with no noncompliance issues. Leadership is the ability to maintain control in a tough time.
When determining if and when a crisis situation may occur, I look at the likelihood of the crisis happening in my area or industry. My first plan of action is to assess the impact of the crisis to my particular company. For example, hurricanes can be a big crisis for companies. However, the impact of hurricane on my particular company isn't as great as it may seem, even though we are headquartered in South Florida. All our employees use laptops, and have the ability to telework from home. We have employees in many different states who can make sure it's "business as usual" for our clients if one area is down due to a weather crisis. Our company location is inland, and too high for flood waters. Everything of value can be stored in an inside, windowless, locked closet. Even so, it's important to have a Crisis and Communication Plan so all employees know who to contact, and how to run the business in case this crisis occurs.
It sounds like you have this type of crisis well in hand both for communication and work flow when a crisis like this may happen. The real issue is jus if!! you were to lose all of the things that just made comfortable with your current mode of communication and work flow. What if you had now internet no phones etc. These are what we call real crisis. To plan well for a crisis you need to look at the things that keep you in business ahd how you would work around them if you lost them for a time.
I agree with you. A true manager keeps things under control ; however, we are seeing nowadays a tendency for some managers to escalate situations instead of deescalating them. Some managers turn things into a crisis when they really are not. The challenge is ... How do we let these people know that this is not the best approach to take especially when these managers are at a higher level position? Any suggestions? This management style creates high anxiety, stress and affects our health.
Yvonne,
When people learn these tactics are daily and are not real crisis your staff aren't ignorant. My best suggestion is that when you are consistent with when there is a crisis they know it must be one. High anxiety causes burnout of employees and they turnover. I have seen this in all casses where we use the motivation tool incorrectly.
Dr. Gary Carlson
Be patient, get all the facts, then decide and take action
jerry ,
Understanding the situation with good communication skills helps to fo forth with a plan of action. 87% of communication is listening to the people who are affected.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I believe the response would be different depending on the crises that was at hand. If you have time to give advanced communications as opposed to a crises such as Sandy Hook, when immediate action was required by all participants to save as many lives as possible, the plan works differently. First and formost you must have a plan, have discussed scenarios, maybe role played scenarios, and then discuss what did or didn't work. Calm cool leadership and a chain of command is necessary no matter the crises. The first order in any plan must be communication with all those affected - how much or how little would be determined by the crises itself.
Sarah,
Plans are necessary and needed. In some cases we find our plan was not full proof and this is a time to plan again to shore up the gaps. Don't overlook the future and plan for it.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I fully agree that most crisis situations can be greatly diffused with a proper understanding of the situation to begin with. We all too often leap before we look. Listening is so important to understand what is really at hand. We all to often make decisions based on our perceptions, which may not always be unbiased. If we communicate with those involved, we gain perception, and understanding which helps in planning for the future as well as dealing with the problem at present.
All factors discussed in this course need to be considered. Economic, Enviromental, Health, Relationships... I think if I had to list 1 thing to be my first step in my plan of action it would be to get the top levels of any company together and go through an emergency crisis plan development meeting. The primary goal of this meeting would be to secure the safety of the employees and consumers of their products.
Bradley,
When everyone has their responsibility and action plan it helps to create a feeling of confidence by your team and employees.
Dr. Gary Carlson
David,
Security and safety is definitely the reason for crisis management.
Dr. Gary Carlson
As a leader, I think that it is critical to follow the plan of action. This is assuming that subordinates have had input to the plna of action. I have experienced "panic" from subordinates that mat cause "stray" for the plan of action. A simple case is making the decision to open or close a school for pending weather conditions. Staying on plan will best satisfy the most constituents...knowing that you cannot make all constituents happy. After the storm is the best time to meet with the "storm" decision team to make process adjustments. Who has had a similar experience?
Mark,
When people are aware of the steps to take in certain crisis instances they are cognizant of the actions. Military have set plans of actions in crisis situations. All hands on deck in the Navy is a call for all servicemen to take their places in the action plan. The same is true when we have crisis plans for certain moments. We need to have practice sessions and meetings to revisit the plans. But it doesn't have to be a daily for weekly practice. Being prepared is the key.
Dr. Gary Carlson
I agree. Some crisis would be easier to plan for. There are some situations that no matter what the plan or level of communication that we will not be ready for but as long as we plan for the things we can we will be in a better place after the crisis and will be able to conduct a post crisis meeting to learn from the crisis and our actions during said crisis.
Ideally, you would want to have a crisis handling mechanism in place. In the day-to-day running of a business entity you are, of course, observing and evaluating function, outcomes and performance. Unforeseen events and factors will challenge this functioning. It is the management team's job and obligation to determine if any of these events rise to the level of crisis. A crisis situation or potential of a crisis would include the following types of situations:injury or risk of injury to a person's health or safety; inability to serve your customers; serious loss of data; serious financial loss; serious threat to morale; etc.
Most important is to gather information and determine if in fact you have a crisis, or potential of one, on hand. You need to determine the magnitude of the crisis. You then need to get a crisis management team in place, gather more information and develop a plan. Some actions may need to be carried out quickly and immediately; some will need to be planned out and executed over time.
Scheduled weekly and less formal daily check-ins with my key managers keeps me abreast of current situations. In addition, I am extremely active throughout my Campus in order to determine the pulse of the Campus, staff, and students. Listening is key. If and when a potential crisis looms or one occurs, my first step is to determine if I have had to react to a similar situation in the past and if there is already a plan in place.
